of seeds and chickens

I've been away.  Far, far away.  From an easy life.

There have been a ton of things go wrong in my life lately.  My best friend's mother passed away.  She was way too young.  We are way to young to experience this.

But, it gave her an excuse to come back home for a week.  She and her family stayed with us.  Her boys are just older than my girls, and they had a blast together.  I wish it were easier to travel long distances faster.

My inlaws are getting ready to be between jobs soon, and they came for a week to work on their house.  They brought my sister in law and her family.  It was wonderful to have them here to visit, they haven't been here since our wedding.

After those two weeks, we needed a vacation.  So, we packed the girls up, drove to Williamsburg, and got the stomach bug.  For the whole time.  Plus, 2 ear infections, 1 sinus infection and another unknown infection.  Came back home and uncovered a UTI also.  Ugh.

But, today, it was a beautiful day.  The sun was out.  The weather was warm.

I started a flat of seeds today.  I plan to hold back on my planting this year, only a couple of each variety.  So, that means only 9 tomatoes, 9 peppers, 3 lavenders, etc.  I am being much more intentional about my garden.  Yay!

The chickens were happy today.  Brady is getting ready to move out - the upcoming Spring is making him very mean.  And, I discovered 2 cracked eggs in the nest boxes.  I hope it's because of the curious new leghorn who laid her first egg today getting nosy, not because I have an egg eater.

Sorry I've been gone.  I promise a few recipes soon, I'm working on some now.

linked to: & Simple Lives Thursday & Homestead Barn Hop

Hurricane Preparedness

So, after I remodeled my kitchen, we had a catastrophe. No, not the earthquake, it didn't cause any damage. No, not the hurricane, yet. We had a bad leak, caused by one of my wonderful, new LG appliances.  More on that later.

Meanwhile, pictures of the prep we are doing for Hurricane Irene.  (we are supposed to get hit starting tomorrow at noon.)

We started on the deck.  Cleared off all the plants, the table and chairs, the grill and toys.

Moved on to the hot tub.  We have a strap system set up, attached to the stakes you see.  We just took it apart so it can be used tonight before the storm.

See all the stuff in the garage?

We had to come up with a good plan for the chicken coop.  It's just a shed set on cinder blocks, a flying kite.  We didn't want to have to try to drag it and my chickens from the field on Sunday, so we anchored it.  Steel cable and huge spikes.  It's pretty strong, we hope.

My husband is so smart, look at the system he designed to tighten the straps.

We cleaned the gutters, yucky.  There were a few crepe myrtle branches hanging over the front, trimmed them off.

And, we removed all the hanging plants, potted plants, bird feeders and bird baths.

I picked all the ripe tomatoes and hope to either can or freeze them tomorrow.  And, I dug a few potatoes to have fried up for breakfast or something else delish.

So, we seem to be prepared.  What I'm mostly concerned about is the chickens, never had to protect something living outside in a storm before.  And, I'm pretty sure we will lose power.  Not too bad, except it's hot and muggy and my family is spoiled by AC.  And...I have a freezer full of stuff like blueberries, corn, venison and I would cry if it spoiled.  I plan to plug it into the car periodically if I have to.

(Is it too hokey to say, "Come On, Irene"?)

Gardening on February 17

It was warm today. At least 70*. See?

That says 70*.  And, that's around 4:30, a little after the warmest part of the day.

I decided it was too nice for the girls to have to nap.  We spent a lot of time outside instead.

We trimmed up the wine barrel planters.  One had parsley in it and it's got a little bit growing at the base of the plant.  We trimmed up the dead leaves and are excited to see what happens to it.  We planted the rest of the planter with swiss chard.

The other two have mint in them, one peppermint and one spearmint.  We trimmed them up, the peppermint is already growing new leaves.

We love peas.  We love to pick them right off the plant and eat them.  Since we garden organically with no chemicals, we can do that.  So, of course, the second thing we planted this year was peas.  We did 2 rows of sugar snaps and a square with four rows of regular shelling peas.

Here are the two rows of sugar snaps.

You can see the rows/square a little bit here.  I couldn't get too good of an angle, I was super close to the compost pile which was swarming with bees.  The square is on the left, the rows on the right.

The girls were big helpers.

Yep, she took a bath as soon as she got back inside.

I think she was busy looking for eggshells to crush.

I love laundry on the line...

Winter Garden Update

I could post about a lot of things today.  About how we're desperately trying to avoid the tummy bug.  It's going around our area, and I have a phobia about my children and puke.  I don't care about me, I went through many months of morning sickness.  And, Troy can handle himself if he's sick.  But, my girls, I don't want to see them in so much pain.

Or, I could post about how cute my kids are.  Maybe I'll do that soon.

Or, how about my cooking?  I've been trying to perfect a couple of bread recipes lately.  Brown buns, which I posted about recently.  Sourdough bread.  I created my own starter.  Yay me!

But, today, I'm going to tell you about how my garden is going this winter.

We are trying something new, similar to lasagna gardening.  It's not true lasagna gardening, where you lay down cardboard and then pile inches of brown and green matter on top.  I don't have enough leaves to do that.  I'm planning to start getting grounds from my sister's Starbucks, but haven't started that yet.  I don't want to use too many of those, anyway, they could really affect my soil.

But, we did do a modified version.  My main desire is to control the weeds.  I wasn't able to set up my garden the right way last year, due to my hectic work schedule and pregnancy, and the grass was super prolific.  It took over my poor garden.  So, over the fall, we laid down large pieces of cardboard and covered them with some leaves, grass clippings, dirt, etc.  I also added a small amount of green matter, but not too much.  I hope it starts to help control the weeds.

My small compost pile...

I purchased some bulbs for the front yard.  We don't spend much time in some of the front yard, and I want to make a butterfly and hummingbird garden out there.  I want to plant elephant ears and lillies up against our garage, where the water softener drains.

We filled our birdfeeders and are loving watching the birds eat.  I counted over 16 goldfinches at once, and we've seen blue jays, cardinals and doves, along with other little birds.

Here are a little black bird and the goldfinches...

I mulched around my blueberries recently.  One of them seems to have died at the end of last year, I hope it recovers in the spring.  I have a set of 3 from Johnny's that the girls gave me for Mother's day a couple of years ago.

The swiss chard that I planted last spring is still growing.  It's amazing stuff!

I planted a rosemary this year in the front garden.  It's one of my favorite herbs, and it should be a perennial here in zone 7.  It actually grows as hedges at our library.  The tips have browned and bent over, but it's mostly green.  It looks way better than any other rosemary I've grown before.

My lavender I started from seed.  I grew it out back in the main garden in the summer, and transplanted three plants into the front garden at the end of the season.  They are doing wonderful, I love lavender, too.

 Happy winter gardening to you.

Last of the summer garden bounty

Last week we harvested the last of the produce from my garden.  There wasn't much, because I had been so busy working and dealing with the hot temps, I let the weeds take over.  Here's what we ended the year with...

We still have 4 basil plants, but they've been flowering for a few weeks now without any trimming.  I don't know how good the flavor is now.

I'm working on pulling my tomato plants up, I have the two longest rows done.  It's not easy, they're not in cages, they're planted between stakes and climbing up a trellis of twine.  So, I have to cut the twine, pull the plant, gather the twine and move on.

After they're all pulled up, I'm going to mow the rest of the plants and weeds, then layer cardboard, then mowed leaves and grass.  I can't remember what it's called, but I believe it's what I have to do to kill the grass that's been infiltrating the garden all year.  I hope...

Yes, the carrot is growing roots.  And the yellow thing is a lemon cucumber.

Garden Update

My garden seems to be doing well this year. Despite an attack of potato beetles, hornworms and cabbage worms, each plant seems to be thriving.  I have many green tomatoes on my plants, (grown from seed for the first time ever - yes, I'm proud!!!), and a nearly ready green pepper.  I've had flowers blooming for a month with many more to come.  I just noticed baby cucumbers today.  I started my squash, melons and beans late, but they're growing quickly.

I tried a new way of staking my tomatoes this year.  I can't remember what it's called, if anyone knows, please inform me???  It's working so good - I love it!  You just put a stake at the end of each row, one between every 2 plants, and run twine between them.  You basically prop the tomatoes as they grow.  It's way better than the usual cages.

This is how they look staked:

And, this is how the twine looks run between the stakes.

This is how big my black tomatoes were about 4 days ago.  They're bigger and starting to change color now!

I also ran a trellis for the cucumbers.  They're just getting big enough to train them up the trellis.

I have a green pepper nearly ready to pick.

Can you see it there in between the leaves?

And, the beets.  They pretty much died when i planted them, but a few surprised me and came back to life.  I need to plant more, once these are closer to ready, so I can have them ready in the fall.
(yes, it's wilty.  The sprinkler misses this corner, we have to water it by hand, and it was forgotten for a day or two.)

I also have a ton of herbs - thyme, oregano, lavender, mints, (in pots), rosemary, tarragon and some HUGE basil.  Yum!

A trip to the beach

Last week, my niece and nephews were here.  Grandpa and Grandma took them to the beach nearly every day.  One of the days, I got to go with them, and although I forgot my camera, I did have my phone with me.  I don't know yet how to edit phone pictures on my computer, that's why these are a bit dark and not cropped.
Averie decided she liked laying on the beach, but didn't learn not to lay her face down in the sand, and then turn it to the other side, thus getting both cheeks and her mouth sandy.

Camdyn decided to burry herself in the sand, with her sister's help.  Funny!!!

We were watching the air show this day, but it was pretty boring.  We had watched them practicing the day before, and it was way better.  It was just, kind of, slow at the actual show.

Now, our days are spent weeding the garden while avoiding the spiders, hornworms and snakes, going to the library, going to the mall and playing outside.  I'm working a lot, still, 5-6 days a week.  But, vacation is coming up soon!!!

Here's an updated picture of the new baby...

Busy

Please, don't be angry at me and stop reading my blog because I'm not posting.  I have a good reason, really, I do!  I am working so much - this week, I'm pushing overtime.  Then, when I'm off, I try to take care of the girls and clean the house since Troy has to do it so much.
I did get lots of cleaning done this week.  I have taken all my seedlings off the starter shelf.  2 trays of them are already planted in the garden, and one is getting ready to go out while sitting on the front porch.  So, the shelf is gone back to the garage.  I took the chance to re-arrange the dining room now with it gone.
I cleaned both bathrooms.
I got out my maternity clothes.
I did laundry.
I straightened and swept the garage.
I put away laundry.

I am looking for a nanny - I hope I find one soon!

Today, skipping yesterday

I have a ton of pictures from our day yesterday, but don't have the patience to go through them tonight.

Maybe tomorrow...

So, lets skip to today.

Here are pictures of my seedlings.  The kale I showed you last time has gotten very full, I actually thinned it yesterday.  And, just about everything else in the tray has sprouted.  Camdyn helped me put the seeds in, and I think we must have missed a few.  I re-seeded about 6 spots today.

You can see my onions in the front, and the peppers between the onions and kale.  Past the kale are black eye susans and some pretty blue and purple flowers, but I can't remember their names.  I made the mistake of planting these in potting soil instead of regular starting soil, maybe that's why some didn't sprout?

Here's my tomato tray!  It's full of tomatoes, except the front corner that has 6 basil starts and 3 thymes.

I tried to take a picture of my light so I could show you my set-up.  I use $10 shop lights from the hardware store.  They came  with chains, so Troy just screwed hooks into my shelf and hung them with the chains.  That way, I can adjust them as the seedlings grow taller.  I have some nice heirloom tomatoes in here, some I've grown before, some that are new to me.

Camdyn and Averie got postcards from their grandparents in South Africa today!

Camdyn had gone to the mailbox with Troy, which she doesn't usually do.  It was neat that she was right there to get it out of the mail instead of us just handing it to her.  I'm not sure Averie's read hers yet, we'll read it to her at breakfast tomorrow.

I can see my pictures!

Thank you for the suggestions.  I removed my Nikon programs and reloaded them - from the internet, and now, I can view my pictures!  There seems to have been a glitch with the CD that came with my camera and Macs, they fixed it early this year.  Yippee!  So, I'll show you some of what we have done recently, and maybe do a little backtracking later.
With all my laying around from morning sickness, I've been working on improving my knitting.  I made quite a few dishcloths and hats, then progressed to these:

They should be made of wool, but I used a blend.  So, I can't really call these "soakers", but that's what they are.  They used to be used as baby diapers, then they became more used as cloth diaper covers.  I don't use cloth, (Troy would never be able to clean one of them), but I am excited to use these and babylegs with onesies for our new baby.  Yes, they're pretty gender neutral, since we don't know what the baby is.  I say, "her", because I think it's a girl.  But, we won't know until birthday.

We also have some seeds sprouting.  Our kale is the biggest, so big, actually that it's bending over.  Maybe it got too tall and leggy before we set up the growlights, but they need thinned anyway, so I'll just thin the tallest ones.

We have a few other things sprouting, mostly flowers.  I bought a lot of different flowers and veggies to grow on our 10 acres, so even though we don't have that anymore, we will still grow them.  And, maybe grow enough for the farmer's market here?
Here are our tiny thyme seeds, aren't they cute?  (Yes, I am having trouble with focusing still.  I'm a slow learner...)

Camdyn wanted a picture of her :)

And, here's my seller's cabinet I found at a garage sale and have been waiting to have a place to use.

Here is my african violet.  I love them, they're so pretty.

We've gotten some things done this week that we were putting off.  Like, opening new bank accounts.  Always such a pain.  And, starting the process of looking for a van!  These warm sunny days really inspire us to be productive.  Did I mention it was over 70 degrees today?